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After previous smaller acting jobs, Olivia landed her recurring lead role as Paige Olvera in the Disney Channel series 'Bizardvark' (2016-2019). This role established her as part of the infamous Disney system of young female performers.

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I'm almost 20 years old now, so my taste in television has changed over the years. I still enjoy most of the shows I loved as a child (mostly cartoons from Nick and Cartoon Network) and I still enjoy a lot of sitcoms my mom showed me when I was younger (Friends, Fraiser, Seinfeld, etc). But my love for television remains with shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Halt & Catch Fire. But I do like to tap in to my inner-child every once and awhile. I saw a promo for this show when I was watching an episodes of Star Wars: Rebels. I had NO idea what to make of it and I didn't care. But I was so bored one day and they were giving an episode of this show. The episode in question was Frankie Has a Hater. My only reaction was surprise, because of how many times I laughed. Here are some of the aspects of the show that work and don't work.

Work: 1. Madison Hu as Frankie Wong: Madison Hu (at least in my eyes) as a future in Hollywood. She's cute, talented, and incredibly funny. A large portion of the show's success and enjoyment comes from Hu's performance. The perfect cross between subtle, stoic nuances and a crazy and incredibly relatable outbursts, Madison Hu's Frankie Wong is one of the most memorable characters in recent Disney Channel history.

2. Paige & Amelia: While Madison Hu is the show's brightest show, the series' 2 other main actresses are also enjoyable. Oliva Rodrigo as Paige Olvera and DeVore Ledridge as Amelia Duckworth can best be described as teenage girl versions of Jason Bateman's Michael Bluth and Portia De Rossi's Lindsay Bluth from Arrested Development. One is more sarcastic and relies on her interactions with her environment and other characters. While the other is more self-involved, concerned with her looks, kinda mean, but never gets on your nerves. I also love that Amelia isn't your stereotypical dumb hot blond.

3. The Chemistry Between the Actors: All the actors (while not all great) all work very well together. Hu and Rodrigo especially.

4. No Over-Reliance on Social Media trends: The series could have easily just have been "LOOK, SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS! LOOK HOW HIP WE ARE!!!!". Instead they use SM as a way to show you how all the characters are different.

5. It's Just Plain Fun: The show isn't smart, original, or even great. But I'm glad that this show isn't just mindless or annoying. The show isn't concerned with teaching the audience a lesson (watch Girl Meets World and Andi Mack for that) but it is concerned with making you laugh. And if that was the show's sole goal, well they accomplished it.

Don't Work: 1. Jake Paul as Dirk Mann: This show would be EONS better if Jake Paul wasn't on this show. The difference between him and the 4 other series regulars is that Jake Paul sticks out like a sore thumb. Hu, Rodrigo, Ledridge, and Wacker are all ACTORS. Jake Paul was a viner, not an actor, and there are not the same thing. Paul only works when he doesn't talk. He gets on your nerves, he over does it, and sinks the show's quality very very very low. He should have stayed with Vine. Oh wait...

2. Ethan Wacker as Bernie Schotz: Wacker is not bad in the show, in fact he's actually quite funny. It's just that I hate the treatment of the character.

3. The Treatment of Male Characters: In traditional Disney Channel tradition (even from shows of my youth) the male characters are treated as idiots and jerks. Surprise surprise.

4. The Music: The Bizaardvark songs take up too much time and most of them aren't even funny. Some are, but most of them aren't.

5. A Severe Lack of Memorable (Or Good) Recurring Characters: When it comes to ANY sitcom (or even all kinds of TV shows) you need a memorable cast of characters. Not only series regulars, but recurring characters as well. This show has a few (Belissa, Liam, and others) but the problem is that NONE of them are memorable or even that good. They come and go without any sort of impact on the viewer. Hopefully this changes in Season 2 or in Season 3.

CONCLUSION: The show isn't perfect and has a lot of problems, but it has a lot of problems that can be easily fixed. With great lead actresses, interesting humor, and a relatable cast of characters, Bizaardvark is some of the most fun I've had on TV in a long time. B

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Bizaardvark (TV Series 2016-2019) - IMDb

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I'm almost 20 years old now, so my taste in television has changed over the years. I still enjoy most of the shows I loved as a child (mostly cartoons from Nick and Cartoon Network) and I still enjoy a lot of sitcoms my mom showed me when I was younger (Friends, Fraiser, Seinfeld, etc).

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Olivia rose to prominence with her lead role as Nini in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-2022), introducing her as a musical talent alongside being an actress. Nini's emotional performances and personal songwriting mirror Olivia's own artistic identity. Thus, the series acted as a bridge between Olivia's image as a Disney Star to her emergence as a solo artist.

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All I Want (2019), written and performed by Olivia for HSMTMTS, showcased her vocal talent as well as her emotional authenticity in her lyricism.

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Olivia Rodrigo - All I Want (Official Video)

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All I Want (2019) earned Olivia's first entrance into the Billboard Hot 100 as well as charting on Spotify and iTunes. The song also gained viral traction on social media platform TikTok. The success of the song positioned Olivia as a relatable, heartfelt storyteller, particularly popular amongst a young female audience who resonated with the lyrics.

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Olivia Rodrigo Performs “All I Want,” Chats About 17th Birthday & “High School Musical” On “Live With Kelly & Ryan” (Update)

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Update: “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” star Olivia Rodrigo appeared on Thursday morning’s edition of “Live With Kelly & Ryan.” Both an

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This TikTok posted by Olivia using the viral "All I Want" audio reflects her self aware and emotionally open persona. It displays how she leaned into a playful approach of connecting and relating with her audience whilst embracing the success of her song via social media.

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@livbedumb
and that’s on failed relationships
♬ All I Want by Olivia Rodrigo - alyssa 🌊

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During her time on HSMTMTS Olivia simultaneously used social media to share videos of her performing songs she had written. The lyrics often pertained to themes of insecurity, love, heartbreak etc. This positioned her as a relatable figure particularly for young women and girls.

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Olivia Rodrigo on Instagram: "today I took the classic Instagram dive, comparing myself to girls incessantly and wishing I had what they looked like they had. it’s so silly how we/i define ourselves by the most arbitrary things and idolize ppl who are humans just like us. anyway, i wrote this song today about the tendency I have to go down this self sabotaging hole and now I’m posting it on Instagram because I love irony. if ur reading this pls know that ur value is so inherent. it’s not something that could ever be defined by something as contrived and manipulative as social media. you are so loved!"

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1M likes, 9,047 comments - oliviarodrigo on April 26, 2020: "today I took the classic Instagram dive, comparing myself to girls incessantly and wishing I had what they looked like they had. it’s so silly how we/i define ourselves by the most arbitrary things and idolize ppl who are humans just like us. anyway, i wrote this song today about the tendency I have to go down this self sabotaging hole and now I’m posting it on Instagram because I love irony. if ur reading this pls know that ur value is so inherent. it’s not something that could ever be defined by something as contrived and manipulative as social media. you are so loved!". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo)

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This TikTok posted by Olivia after the release of Drivers License acts as promotion for the song yet also clearly highlights her down-to-earth persona. It depicts a lot of behind-the-scenes glimpses into making the song (using the sound of her mum's car) whilst also showcasing her excitement for its growing success. Olivia explains how she wrote the song after getting her license and then "driving alone through the suburbs crying". This content all works together to construct her as being a regular teenage girl navigating adolescent experiences.

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@livbedumb

♬ drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo

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Olivia released her debut single "Drivers License" in January 2021 at age 17. "Drivers License" broke multiple streaming records and debuted at No.1 on Billboards Hot 100, catapulting Rodrigo into global fame. The songs success widely hinged on its honest and emotionally driven lyricism related to teenage heartache. The openness within the lyrics not only connected audiences emotionally with the song but also encouraged mass speculation into who the song was about. This positioned Olivia's star image not only as authentic and relatable but also as someone who's personal life and music are complexly intertwined with public imagination and speculation.

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Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (Official Video)

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1. The Beginning: Olivia Rodrigo as a child star

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1. The Beginning: Olivia Rodrigo as a child star

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2. Drivers License & SOUR: Relatable Teen Image

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2. Drivers License & SOUR: Relatable Teen Image

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The release of "Drivers License" saw to a media frenzy interested in the alleged love triangle behind the song, positioning Olivia as a teen star worthy of gossip. This placed her centrally within the spotlight of pop culture speculation and headlines. The attention reinforced Olivia's star image by amplifying the connection between her personal life/experiences and musical artistry. This media attention also allowed audiences to see how she navigated heartbreak in real time, emphasising a level of vulnerability maintaining her authentic and relatable image.

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YouTube / Via screenshot

Olivia Rodrigo in the "Drivers License" music video

Nothing illustrates The Way We Live Now - at least in the music world - more than the drama unfolding behind 17-year-old Disney star Olivia Rodrigo's massive hit single " Drivers License."

The spare, plaintive ballad, written by the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actor (yes, the franchising is a mouthful) has been the No. 1 song in the country for three weeks. It evocatively renders teen feelings, using the promise of adolescent automotive independence as the backdrop for a breakup story. "You said forever / Now I drive alone past your street," Rodrigo sings in the chorus.

Of course, romantic melodrama has powered pop music for a long time. But part of what propelled this particular hit song's rise was the social media hubbub around the speculation that it wasn't about a fictional relationship, but Rodrigo's supposed former boyfriend, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costar Joshua Bassett.

Rodrigo rather obviously references an ex who wrote a song about her (it's all very meta) and a "blonde girl" who made her insecure about the relationship. Bassett has been linked to Sabrina Carpenter, a blonde Disney star turned singer.

The entire drama became TikTok detective fodder, as fans sleuthed through their social media feeds and their entire Disney back catalog looking for hints about who was referring to whom. And since "Drivers License" was released on Jan. 8, both Bassett and Carpenter have come out with alleged response singles (or at least framed as such through fan speculation): Bassett's " Lie Lie Lie" and Carpenter's " Skin," which more explicitly includes lyrics responding to Rodrigo's song.

This week, with "Drivers License" still topping the charts, "Skin" became Carpenter's first US pop hit (and first UK top 40 hit). That these wholesome onetime Disney stars are launching (successful) solo efforts through such messy drama speaks to the way social media has helped turn pop music into a form of reality television. None of this is exactly new: It's post-Taylor Swift messiness now playing out on TikTok. But the success of Rodrigo's song, and the way it garnered attention, still speaks to the very particular ways that women pop stars' perspectives are valued - for better or worse.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett pose at the after-party for the premiere of Disney+'s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series at the Walt Disney Studio lot in 2019

Fans had followed and speculated about Rodrigo and Bassett's apparent relationship as it unfolded in front of their eyes through the promotional cycle for High School Musical. (They even cowrote a song on the soundtrack together.)

So it makes sense that their supposed split was also part of the show. Rodrigo teased fans with both "Drivers License" and what followers read as hints of a breakup in an Instagram post of July of last year, stoking public curiosity.

The song, released Jan. 8, allowed her to set the narrative about a breakup in which she got her heart broken. Since debuting at No. 1 in the US on Billboard, it has smashed streaming records and continued to top the charts all over the globe. (Even a song that Rodrigo wrote and released last year, a love ballad, " All I Want," that debuted and peaked at No. 90, also largely in part thanks to TikTok love, has now reentered the charts.)

It's post-Taylor Swift messiness now playing out on TikTok.

It's impossible to consider Rodrigo's success without understanding a pop culture landscape - of social media gossip and curated relationship revelations - that Taylor Swift helped define. Rodrigo is, admittedly, a huge fan; her Spotify bio describes her as "a songwriter, an actor, and a huge Swiftie," and she even invoked Swift's CMA Awards speech to react to her own song shooting to No. 1. Swift, in turn, jokingly called Rodrigo her "baby," and she is definitely her pop diva progeny.

Swift, of course, was instrumental in turning confessional songwriting into social media drama, like a musical Kardashian throughout the aughts. Before Taylor - or the advent of social media - women pop stars might have been confessional, but it wasn't a major part of their personas, nor was it something that powered their album promotional cycles. Mariah Carey, for instance, recently made headlines for finally revealing in her memoir that some songs on her 1997 Butterfly album were about then-boyfriend Derek Jeter. But at the time, she didn't wrap the album's marketing into teasing that, and the songs were deep cuts, not promotional singles.

In 2002, Justin Timberlake released "Cry Me a River," basically a self-pitying account of Britney Spears cheating on him. It created so much controversy that Spears wrote "Everytime" as a response ballad, which she included in a 2003 album. But it wasn't really until the single and video came out in 2004 that she overtly connected it to Timberlake through a video look-alike. The entire song and moment stood out at the time mostly as an exception to Spears' usual avoidance of autobiography.

Swift, in contrast, turned her feuds and relationship squabbles into ongoing drama in her very particular (and memorable) messy white girl mode. Unlike Spears, Swift made hip-hop-inflected talk about haters and feuds part of her pop persona. As she puts it in one of her clapback songs, 2010's "Better Than Revenge" - reportedly inspired by a breakup with Joe Jonas - she always got the last word on her relationships. ( Usually on the covers of magazines.)

But while Swift has retreated from that kind of drama, other pop stars have taken up that mantle. Ariana Grande, for instance, spiced up her image by calling out ex-boyfriends in her 2018 breakup song, "Thank U, Next," which became - not at all incidentally - her first No. 1 hit after a number of high-charting songs that barely missed the top spot. (Like "Drivers License," it debuted at No. 1.)

Writing about personal relationships now seems to signal a woman pop star's growing up, a power move whereby women artists define themselves and take back control of their narrative. (This, of course, only works for stars who already have a massive platform and whose relationship drama fits into the cis-hetero norms that power celebrity gossip.) Swift and Grande didn't create the system in which real-life, public heartbreak leads to heightened attention; they just don't shy away from using it in their music. And neither does Rodrigo.

While Rodrigo has dominated the charts, Bassett and Carpenter have - comparatively - struggled to exploit the publicity cycle. Bassett's response single, "Lie Lie Lie," released Jan. 14, sounds like a bubblegum mashup of Shawn Mendes and Maroon 5. The lyrics talk about someone who's lying about the singer, whose ass he'll kiss goodbye. (The video features a dead carousel horse in the opening, and he briefly gives the camera the finger.) He claims it's about a former friend. (Since then, he's released another ballad, " Only a Matter of Time," that feels more Swiftian in its moral imagination, mixing militaristic imagery with the spiritual through its references to twisting knives, crimes, and karma.)

But his kiss-offs haven't really taken off in the same way as the women's feuding perspectives. Carpenter, who has already released four commercially underwhelming albums, dropped her response song "Skin," Jan. 22, as her debut single for a forthcoming album from Island Records.

Carpenter's lyrics more explicitly reference the drama. "Maybe 'blonde' was the only rhymed," she sings in her wistful (and quite excellent) ballad, about someone trying (but failing) to get under her skin. That Carpenter's persona has to be defined in terms of a romantic feud seems like a strange way to get her foot in the door, but fans are listening, and the song became her first Billboard hit.

It's hard out there for musicians nowadays, but the way that women pop stars and songwriters in particular are elevated through these hetero celebrity scandals boxes them into narratives that become hard to escape. Even Swift later realized that putting everything out there for her fans in the early days of social media created exhausting expectations, and she started setting more boundaries between her private and public self.

It remains to be seen how these next-gen stars define themselves beyond the drama. For now, TikTok has been reeling with tea recaps and reenactments of "Drivers License" and its offshoots, and the protagonists continue to feed into the fallout. "You've been telling your side," sings Carpenter, "so I'll be telling mine." ●

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Why The "Drivers License" Love Triangle Drama Matters

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Nothing illustrates The Way We Live Now - at least in the music world - more than the drama unfolding behind 17-year-old Disney star Olivia Rodrigo's massive hit single " Drivers License." The spare, plaintive ballad, written by the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actor (yes, the franchising is a mouthful) has been the No.

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'good 4 u' revealed a more empowered and rebellious side to Olivias persona expressing anger whilst leaning into more of a pop-punk sound reminiscent of the early 2000s. This aesthetic helped increase her appeal across generations evoking a sense of nostalgia for older audiences. All of which contributes to Olivias star image as one which audiences can connect with.

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Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u (Official Video)

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'Deja Vu' showcased Olivia's use of cinematic imagery whilst expressing emotions of jealousy in a more upbeat/lighthearted manner. Her use of humour and cultural references particularly with reference to watching 'glee' reinforces her relatability to a young audience.

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Olivia Rodrigo - deja vu (Official Video)

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Olivia's debut album SOUR (2021) achieved global commercial success and widespread critical acclaim solidifying her transition into a pop-star. The vulnerability and emotional honesty within the albums storytelling resonated across generations defining Rodrigo's star image as again extremely relatable and sincere.

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This video shows Olivia surprising fans by knocking on their doors and inviting them to 'prom' i.e., her event for the SOUR Prom virtual concert. This connection and engagement with her fans builds on Olivia's image as a likeable and down-to-earth person.

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Olivia Rodrigo asking her fans out to Prom

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This article discusses how teens connect with SOUR by breaking down lyrics in each song. It suggests that through Olivia's lyricism, her candid ability to express feelings of insecurity, heartbreak, jealousy, anger and self-discovery, positions her as a voice of her generation.

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How Teenagers Can Relate to Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR

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Olivia Rodrigo’s hit album SOUR left teenagers struck with how relatable and intricately she speaks about adolescence, heartbreak, and failed romance. Through a deep analysis, this article unfolds the emotion behind the mindful lyrics of a 17-year old girl and probably most teenagers as well.

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Olivia cemented herself as a serious musician with the successive releases of singles 'deja vu' and 'good 4 u'. Both tracks allowed Olivia to display artistic versatility whilst simultaneously solidifying her identity as a relatable young artist capable of translating teenage emotion into music.

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This article explores how millennials and older generations are also able to connect and relate to SOUR. It suggests that through her lyricism Olivia is offering people older than her a 'second chance' of reliving teenage emotion. Similarly it highlights how Olivia's music not only applies to adolescent experiences but also how her songs can be connected to by anyone experiencing heartbreak, no matter their age.

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For ‘Geriatric’ Millennials Who Love Olivia Rodrigo, It’s Brutal Out Here

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Sour is a really great album. Why are we obsessing over how old you have to be to enjoy it?

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During the SOUR Tour fans gave in letters to Olivia's team and she thanked them by direct messaging them on Instagram. Connecting with fans through ways such as bonding over fictional characters helps humanise her to her audience by showing her interests beyond just music. This type of fan engagement solidifies Olivia's likeable and friendly personality.

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something https://t.co/jh4mjoE7Ky

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something https://t.co/jh4mjoE7Ky

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something pic.twitter.com/jh4mjoE7Ky
— hannah (@sournaya) March 27, 2023

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something https://t.co/jh4mjoE7Ky

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something https://t.co/jh4mjoE7Ky

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i may never get a livieshq dm but i got an olivia rodrigo dm and that counts for something https://t.co/jh4mjoE7Ky

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SOUR Prom was a virtual concert that premiered on YouTube and allowed Olivia to perform the songs from SOUR live for the first time. This article explains that Olivia's inspiration for this project came from her missing out on high school experiences such as prom due to her rise to fame, just like her age group also missed out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore by hosting this event she and her fans could celebrate 'prom' together. This is another example of Olivia connecting to her fans through shared teenage experiences, thereby adding to her star image as relatable.

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Allycia Gutierrez grew up watching videos of celebrities surprising their fans on YouTube. She'd seen Justin Bieber make surprise visits to his supporters and was struck by the exclusivity of being one of the few people who could say their favorite artist has been to their home. She hadn't considered ever finding herself in a similar situation - but when her doorbell rang on June 22, she opened the door to find blazing pop newcomer Olivia Rodrigo standing on her front lawn holding a poster that read, "Prom would be brutal without you."

See latest videos, charts and news

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9syCTdjUhCA

Directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch and Toby L, is a 27-minute live concert film featuring performances of six full songs and a mashup from Rodrigo's platinum-certified debut album which debuted atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with the year's best first-week numbers , and has spent three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the listing. Since its YouTube premiere on June 29, the film has surpassed 10 million views.

Rodrigo had graduated from high school two weeks before the film's premiere, mentioning in interviews over the past few months that her rise as one of pop's biggest stars often coincided with completing her statistics homework. While exciting in its own right, being homeschooled on set of the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series as her music career was blowing up earlier this year excluded her from the traditional high school senior experience, much like the pandemic had limited celebrations for recently graduated classes. "Since Olivia never got to go to prom, she knew she wanted to throw an event for everyone to celebrate together," Stuckwisch tells . "Olivia still wanted to partake, albeit in her own way," adds Toby L. "We and Olivia really wanted to ensure it wasn't quite like the typical prom or high school story."

visually and sonically expands on the world presented on -- validating a range of emotions spanning from heartbreak to jealousy to self-assurance -- through the context of an all-inclusive high school prom experience viewers could find themselves in. "I never got to go to prom in high school, I was going through a really rough time in my senior year," explains Gutierrez, who graduated high school in 2018. "I was so heartbroken over it. Then, all of a sudden, it's 2021 and I'm being asked by my favorite singer to go to a prom party with her."

Gutierrez was one of eight young women provided with designer gowns and chauffeurs to attend the premiere in Los Angeles. Rodrigo's crew of prom dates were tasked with keeping the event under wraps until it was officially announced to the public on June 23. At the time of the announcement, was still in post-production with production company Up The Game, as the singer's creative team worked around the clock to meet a 7-day deadline for a project they would normally have 8 to 10 weeks to complete. had been initially planned to be filmed in a real high school gym, but the location fell through two days before shooting began due to the school's prior commitment to host a summer camp, leading to the compressed time schedule.

"We hit a lot of road bumps. It was no one's fault, that's just the way the cards fell and everyone was super level-headed about it," says cinematographer Justin Hamilton. "I don't think that it's possible to really describe how tough it was on the producers' end with losing [the original high school] location, and then coming up with so many alternate plans. We were running into permitting issues just because of the time crunch that we were on."

Nick Walker*

The prom set ultimately seen in the film was actually built on a 3-dimensional soundstage and performed with 75 people total. "A big part of the artistic creative challenge was, 'How do you make that seem full and real and not sad?'" says Richoux. "It's supposed to be 'Sour Prom,' but it wasn't supposed to be depressing because nobody was there."

While the visual event came together behind the scenes, its press cycle was dominated by plagiarism accusations from Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, who said the film's promotional photo of Rodrigo as an emotional prom queen was starkly similar to the cover art of the band's 1994 album Live Through This. "Stealing an original idea and not asking permission is rude," Love on Facebook. "There's no way to be elegant about it." Rodrigo acknowledged the comments on Instagram - where Love also posted about the similarities - commenting: "love u and live through this sooooo much."

While she may have drawn influence from Hole, prior to announcing , Rodrigo also uploaded stills from and the 1976 cult classic to her Instagram story to highlight more direct inspirations. In a 2019 with Another Magazine , Ellen von Unwerth, who photographed the Live Through This cover, shared that Love had initially approached her with the idea of re-enacting the latter film's prom scene, too. "That became part of the PR conversation of it, for sure," production designer John Richoux says of the overlap in creative vision. "But I mean, it really came from that one reference and [Olivia] wanted it. She wanted that feel."

The horror film was one of a number of unusual visual references pulled together for the concert film. "I basically went into a rabbit hole about developing something a little more hyper-real and journey-like, utilising the melodrama and intensity of David Lynch and Tim Burton as reference points," director Toby L explains. When Stuckwisch was brought on, she also incorporated influences from The Twilight Zone and the psychedelic tunnel scene in Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to evoke a feeling of unease

When Rodrigo emerges from the limo, she passes by subsets of prom goers -- including cameos from her real-life best friends musicians Conan Gray and Lydia Night and actresses Iris Apatow and Madison Hu -- and travels through four subtle sections of hues: pink, light blue, purple and dark blue. "Kimberly [Stuckwisch] wanted to divide the prom into the quadrants of these colors to represent the cliques that are in high school," Hamilton explains. "It represents her presence coming in and breaking those walls that are put up between people in high school."

The introductory strings of opening track "Brutal" lead viewers to the dancefloor before the drums crash through, in tandem with Rodrigo's emergence from a curtain of silver foil streamers. "From that point forward," Hamilton says, "it becomes Olivia's ." Stuckwisch says that the lyrics from served as a script-like blueprint for the film. "Understanding that I wanted to reach an audience through the emotion of the artist, and focusing on their words and how they perform them with real gut wrenching emotion has become the staple of everything I do," she says.

The intention shines brightest during the ballad "Traitor," as the couples slow dancing around Rodrigo break apart and come back together to the song's story of betrayal, keeping the singer focused in the center. "For me, this one hit home because I always felt kind of awkward when slow dancing," says choreographer Monika Smith, recalling the weird discomfort of not knowing what to talk about or where to put her hands in the moment. "I wanted to illustrate the awkwardness that we feel through the movement in a beautiful way."

is largely a romanticization of the high school experience that rewrites the narrative of exclusion and social pressures. The most poignant representation of this comes from the self-aware track "Jealousy, Jealousy," especially in the setting of a prom where unconscious comparison is inevitable. "I wish somebody was doing this when I was in high school because I think it would [have helped] me with dealing with the angsty-ness of being a teenager," says Kimberly Lee, 22, who appeared as an extra in the film. "Having a major pop star put that into a song form would have been very helpful in reaffirming my feelings."

Even though the prom scenes themselves were filmed in a replica of a school gym and limited to a few dozen people - much less than the typical size of a high school prom - Rodrigo played the role of a melancholic-turned-triumphant high school student with a sense of realism. "It really did embody what a high school prom would normally look like," says Jocelyn Recendez, 18, another one of Rodrigo's promposal recipients. "Maybe you don't have a date but you still go and then you see your ex dancing with someone else and you absolutely want to start crying."

For the grand finale, Rodrigo runs through "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U" in a performance with the University of Southern California marching band held on the school's football field with bleachers full of extras cheering her on. The final scene also features an expansion of the cheerleader theme first introduced in the "Good 4 U" music video as Rodrigo shouts the angsty lyrics of her second Hot 100 chart-topper while a professional competitive cheer squad performs around her. "It's a whole other level of storytelling on top of the music," says art director Nick DeCell of the film's visual themes. "Especially in times of isolation, it [provides] worlds for fans to be a part of and it takes you to a different place."

Nick Walker*

Rodrigo had been unable to perform the majority of in a live setting since its release due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the world she's been building for the project has been in place since the release of "Drivers License." The lyrical resonance made through the music itself only echos louder in an emotive live setting without the polish of pre-recorded vocals. The formatting of and the selected setlist anchors itself in that intention and a focused control of the audience's attention. "We wanted teenagers to watch from home and know that they belonged here," says Stuckwisch. "We wanted adults to relive those moments from their young adult lives and to feel welcomed."

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'Not the Typical High School Story': Inside the Making of Olivia Rodrigo's Concert Film 'Sour Prom'

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'Sour Prom' visually and sonically expands on the world presented on 'Sour,' through the context of an all-inclusive high school prom experience.

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Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film) (2022) ⭐ 7.2 | Documentary, Biography, Music

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Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film)’ review: a frank account of her rapid rise

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The pop sensation gives us a snapshot of the whirlwind she has been living in for the past 14 months.

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The film follows Olivia while she reflects on her quick rise to global fame. She takes a road trip from, performing songs along the way. The film is very stripped back with a lot of it being just Olivia and the camera allowing her to explain a lot of the inspiration and process of making each song. As the article states it offers insight into her high level of self-awareness particularly on how, due to her age, she wishes to be perceived as 'cool' 'pretty' and 'funny'.

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This article positions Olivia as a fashion icon analysing her various different styles. Particularly referencing how she is well-versed in fashion history, pulling from archives for her looks. It comments on how through her fashion she pays homage to iconic fashion moments while staying true to her personal brand.

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Earlier this month Rodrigo announced a string of tour dates across the USA, Europe and the UK. This tour marks the 18-year-old pop star's first-ever live shows. Named The Sour Tour after her 2021 album Sour, this will be the star's first foray into live music since her debut earlier this year.

However, when the tickets for the UK shows were released last week, Rodrigo's fans were left hugely disappointed.

The London dates are taking place at the Eventim Apollo, which has a capacity of around 4,000 people.

During the release of the tickets, more than 40,000 people were queuing to purchase spots at Rodrigo's first tour, prompting the dates to sell out in minutes. Tickets have since been spotted on scalper sites for thousands of pounds.

Speaking in a new interview, Rodrigo spoke out about why she chose such small venues for her first-ever tour.
READ MORE: Olivia Rodrigo tickets: Here's where to get Sour tour tickets
Rodrigo said: "I don't think I should skip any steps." (Via LA Times) The American star's new comment follows her celebratory Instagram post where she promised "more tours" in the coming years. She wrote: "SOUR TOUR is sold out!!! been waiting so long to perform these songs live. this is my very first tour and i'm so nervous but so excited to sing and dance the night away with you all!!! if you weren't able to get tickets this time around there will be more tours in the future and I can't wait to see you then!!! thank u to all my incredible fans. love u guys sm ahhh here we goooo!!!" (sic)

Although Rodrigo's tour is still six months away, she has spoken out about what fans can expect at the shows.

She revealed her Sour collection of musicians is made up entirely of women.

The singer revealed when the band played through her prickly track Brutal for the first time she almost shed a tear.

The star said: "Six girls on electric guitars and things, rocking out on this super-crunchy grunge song - I feel like I didn't get to see enough of that when I was a kid."
DON'T MISS...
Olivia Rodrigo tickets: Here's where to get Sour tour tickets [NEWS]
Olivia Rodrigo won't write another song like Drivers License - 'No fun' [INTERVIEW]
Olivia Rodrigo Drivers License: The 'inspiration' behind the song [INSIGHT]
Rodrigo also spoke candidly about what the future holds for her now Sour is well and truly in the books.
Olivia Rodrigo Sour Tour tickets are out now.
She said she has since begun writing new songs. She explained: "There's always something on my mind I can talk about.

"I've been listening to a lot of rap lately, and I really admire rappers for that."

Rodrigo pointed at J Cole as her new inspiration for now. She added: "He can talk about anything and everything and we eat it up because he says it in such an interesting storytelling way."

Rodrigo went on to assure her fans she will not be stopping anytime soon.

She said: "I never take a break from music. When I was shooting season 2 of [High School Musical The Musical The Series] I wrote like five of the songs on my album.

"So, honestly, I'm probably gonna be more productive. But who knows? I've only been doing this for a year. I've got a lot left to figure out."

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Olivia Rodrigo breaks silence on Sour tour size and sold out venues

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OLIVIA RODRIGO recently announced her first-ever tour in the UK, but her fans were left devastated when the concerts sold out in minutes. She has now revealed why.

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Olivia Rodrigo Wows the ‘Sour’ Faithful With Triumphant Radio City Show: Concert Review

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Olivia Rodrigo Wows the Faithful With Triumphant Radio City Show: Concert Review

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Both articles imply how Olivia's SOUR Tour also reinforced her star image. Particularly, her decision to play smaller venues despite having higher demand was underlined by not wanting to 'skip any steps', showing her desire for a humble progression. This also ultimately allowed for a more intimate connection with fans, reflective of her music.

Additionally, her prefacing songs with personal backstories operates as part of the concert spectacle, thereby situating her as being a star alongside someone whose emotional experiences mirror her audience.

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Olivia Rodrigo won 3 awards at the 2022 Grammy's. This article references her acceptance speech in which she shares a personal memory about her mother and her ambitions when she was young - this again does a lot to reiterate her down-to-earth, likeable persona.

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Tonight, at the 2022 Grammy Awards, Olivia Rodrigo took home the trophy for Best Pop Vocal Album. Her hit debut beat out LPs by Justin Bieber ( Justice ( Triple Chucks Deluxe)), Doja Cat ( Planet Her (Deluxe)), Billie Eilish ( Happier Than Ever), and Ariana Grande ( Positions).

"When I was 9 years old I told my mom I was going to be an Olympic gymnast, even though I could barely do a cartwheel, and she thought I was joking," Rodrigo said in her acceptance speech. "So the next week when I told her I was going to win a Grammy she was very supportive, even though I'm sure thought it was just a little kid pipe dream. But I want to thank my mom for being supportive of all of my dreams, no matter how crazy."

Earlier in the night, Rodrigo won the Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Drivers License." She was nominated in six categories total at tonight's ceremony. "Drivers License" was also up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, while Sour was among the LPs vying for Album of the Year.

Follow all of Pitchfork's coverage of the 2022 Grammys.

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Olivia Rodrigo Wins Best Pop Vocal Album for Sour at 2022 Grammys

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Her debut LP beat out records by Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande

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Following the release of SOUR Olivia faced criticism regarding her originality, pushing her to credit Paramore and Taylor Swift on 'good 4 u' and 'deja vu' respectively. Olivia has since shared her disappointment in the way her work was discredited, emphasising the gendered double standards within the music industry. This adds complexity to her persona as a young female artist growing up in the public eye.

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Olivia Rodrigo responds to criticism over ‘Sour’ songwriting credits: “Nothing in music is ever new”

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Olivia Rodrigo has opened up about drawing inspiration from other artists, responding to criticism around songwriting credits on album ‘Sour’.

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Academia - The devaluing of women in music

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Academia - The devaluing of women in music

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Within this article, the tendency for women to be marginalised within the music industry (particularly in the rock genre) is analysed. Mayhew discusses how women's musical authenticity and contributions are often devalued, ultimately exploring how female musicians commonly face barriers when it comes to being viewed as fully legitimate musicians. This provides valuable context for the criticism Olivia faced regarding the originality of her artistry as well as her desire to provide representation of women in rock with her all female band.

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Vampire was the first single of GUTS to be released and marks a shift from her teenage image to maturity. The songs lyrics discuss intersecting dynamics of a toxic relationship, fame and exploitation.

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Olivia Rodrigo - vampire (Official Video)

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GUTS explores early adulthood with intersecting themes of fame, insecurity and womanhood. It marks her shift into a more rock sound as well as the end of her teenage years.

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Olivia attended the White House in 2021 to make a speech to encourage youth vaccination. This shows Olivias position as a responsible role model for her young audience and early commitment to activism.

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Pop star Olivia Rodrigo visits White House to urge young people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 | CNN Politics

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Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo visited the White House on Wednesday to meet with President Joe Biden and his chief Covid-19 medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, to record videos to encourage young people to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

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This article discusses how Olivia wishes to increase the representation of female rock musicians, noting her all female band. This establishes her early image as being alligned with feminist ideals.

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Olivia Rodrigo says there’s “not enough” female rock music shown in the media

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Olivia Rodrigo is taking her all-female rock band on her upcoming Sour Tour.

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Olivia Rodrigo set up Fund 4 Good in 2024. It is a global initiative that supports girls education, reproductive rights and prevents gender-based violence, aiming to build equality and brighter futures for young women and girls. This signifies Olivia's commitment to activism and emphasises her place as an artist who works to empower young women and uses her platform for meaningful change.

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In conjunction with the GUTS world tour, Olivia launched Olivia Rodrido's Fund 4 Good, a global initiative committed to building an equitable and just future for all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom.

A portion of the proceeds from all ticket sales at the GUTS world tour will go towards the Fund 4 Good.

For the US GUTS world tour, Olivia will partner with local chapters of the National Network of Abortion Funds to ensure those most impacted by systemic racism, misogyny, and healthcare barriers can get the reproductive care they deserve.

To learn more, visit the National Network of Abortion Funds website, or stop by their table at your local stop of the GUTS world tour.

For the Canadian GUTS world tour, Olivia will support Women's Shelters Canada. Women's Shelters Canada brings together 16 provincial and territorial shelter organizations and supports over 600 shelters across the country for women and children fleeing violence.

To learn more, visit the Women's Shelters Canada website.

For the European GUTS world tour, Olivia will support Women Against Violence Europe. WAVE's mission is to enable all women and their children to live free from violence. The WAVE Network consists of more than 160 member organizations in 46 European countries offering specialized support and prevention services, experts, and survivor resources.

To learn more, visit the Women Against Violence Europe website.

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Olivia Rodrigo's Fund 4 Good - Entertainment Industry Foundation

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Olivia Rodrigo's Fund 4 Good is a global initiative committed to building an equitable and just future for women and girls..

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Olivia handed out free contraception and sexual health information at her concert in Missouri after the state restricted/limited abortion freedom. This solidifies her dedication to advocating for reproductive rights, marking her place as an activist whilst also emphasising her edge.

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Olivia Rodrigo Makes Free Emergency Birth Control Pills Available at Missouri Concert After State Narrows Reproductive Rights

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Olivia Rodrigo distributed free emergency contraceptives and condoms, spreading awareness of reproductive rights via the Missouri Abortion Fund.

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Olivia played her largest ever concert in Manila, donating all ticket sale profits through her Fund 4 Good to Jhpiego, a nonprofit organisation that helps women's health and education initiatives. This reinforces her image as an artist with integrity who is driven by her values. This article also references the importance of this concert for Olivia, who is part Filipina, in connecting meaningfully with her cultural roots.

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Olivia Rodrigo Donated All Profits from Her Biggest Concert Yet

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Olivia received Planned Parenthood's Catalyst of Change award in recognition of her activism surrounding reproductive rights. This institutional recognition solidifies her position as an activist.

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Every night on tour, Olivia Rodrigo performs for countless women and girls - but when they all funnel out of the arenas and festival grounds at the end of each of her shows, she worries constantly for their futures.

That's why she's spent almost her entire career advocating for reproductive rights, using her platform to speak out against oppressive policy changes and raising money through her concerts for abortion funds. And on Thursday evening (April 24) at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York's Spring Into Action Gala in New York City, those efforts were honored by the organization with the designation of 2025's Catalyst of Change award to the 22-year-old pop star, who asked during her speech, "When I play shows, I look out at crowds filled with young girls and the bond I feel with them is profound... I often wonder, 'What happens to those girls when they leave those venues? What are their dreams? What kind of world are they returning to?'"

Rodrigo was one of two guests of honor at the night's celebration at Cipriani South Street in lower Manhattan, with Amanda Zurawski - the Texas woman who sued her home state in 2023 after she nearly died due to pregnancy complications and was denied an abortion - also getting a moment of recognition as this year's Champion of Change award winner. Past winner Laverne Cox was on hand to present Zurawski with the honor, while the "Vampire" singer's friend and fellow activist Lily Allen (with whom she chanted "F-k you" to the Supreme Court at her Glastonbury set three years prior, shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned), gave Rodrigo a heartfelt introduction.

"Olivia, my love, you're the realest," the British singer-songwriter gushed after commending Rodrigo for not "[straying] from her values to make powerful people comfortable." "You use your platform because you actually give a s-t about reproductive freedom and justice. And in this world, genuinely giving a s-t is revolutionary."

After taking the stage and giving Allen a hug, Rodrigo used her speech to highlight the work of Planned Parenthood and shout out Zurawski - "You deserve this award far more than I do," the singer said, singling out the activist in the audience - before paying tribute to Cecile Richards, the healthcare organization's former president who died earlier this year after battling brain cancer.

"It's a privilege to be here tonight to support an organization that, despite countless obstacles, continues to show up with compassion, hope and dignity for women," Rodrigo told a crowd of donors and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York board members, who clung to every word. "My greatest wish is that through organizations like Planned Parenthood and the action of everyday citizens, no woman will need to sacrifice her dreams, her health or humanity because of restrictive laws or lack of resources."

"[Richards] led at a time of relentless attacks on care and constant efforts to silence and shame women into submission," the three-time Grammy winner added. "She reminds us that standing up for what's right doesn't mean we have to be fearless. We can be scared, we can be angry, we can feel hopeless. We just have to fight anyway."

The event honoring her comes after years of Rodrigo being one of the most vocal and hands-on modern pop stars when it comes to advocating for reproductive freedom. Back in May 2022 at a Sour Tour concert in Washington, D.C., just after the overturning of Roe, she made headlines for telling her crowd, "Our bodies should never be in the hands of politicians ... I hope we can raise our voices to protect our right to have a safe abortion, which is a right that so many people before us have worked so hard to get."

On her next tour in support of 2023 Billboard 200-topping sophomore album Guts, Rodrigo launched her Fund 4 Good, which funneled proceeds from her shows on the trek to local abortion funds. Through the initiative, the Grammy winner also had local abortion funds set up tables at her venues, allowing young fans to learn about reproductive health and resources. In December, she announced that she'd donated more than $2 million in ticket sales from her 2024 Guts Tour - which continues this year with shows in Latin America and Europe as well as a run of global festival dates - to 10 organizations around the world championing girls' education, reproductive rights and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Read Rodrigo's full speech at the 2025 Planned Parenthood Spring Into Action Gala below.

Um, first of all, huge thank you to Lily. I absolutely adore you and I'm so grateful that you're here tonight, thank you. And a huge thank you to Planned Parenthood of Greater New York for this incredible honor.

I feel very fortunate for so many things in my life and my career. Over the past few years, I've gotten to live out dreams that I had as a little girl. I've traveled the world, I've written music that inspires me, and I've met so many of the people I grew up worshiping, like Miss Lily, for example.

But perhaps the greatest privilege this career has given me is connection with women through my music. When I play shows, I look out at crowds filled with young girls and the bond I feel with them is profound. To be in a space where we can all feel safe to be wild, emotional and carefree is incredibly powerful, and even though we're not speaking one on one, those moments where we sing together and lock eyes, something real forms. It feels like we're part of each other's lives. I often wonder, 'What happens to those girls when they leave those venues? What are their dreams? What kind of world are they returning to?

We live in a world that politicizes our bodies and uses harmful ideologies to deny us safety and healthcare, and it breaks my heart to think that, because of oppressive laws and outdated policies, some of those girls may not get to follow their dreams the way I was able to follow mine. Just a year ago, fueled by heartbreak and anger over what was happening in the world, I launched my Fund 4 Good, a global initiative that supports local nonprofits, championing reproductive freedom, girls' education and the prevention of gender-based violence. A portion of my tour proceeds went to the fund, and I'm proud to share that we've raised and donated over $2 million to organizations around the world.

I'm so, so incredibly humbled to be here amongst so many real-life heroes in the fight for freedom of choice. Amanda, wherever you are - where are you? Oh, hi Amanda! I'm absolutely floored by your story. Your ability to turn something so heartbreaking and painful into such powerful activism is so incredibly inspiring. I'm just so in awe of you. You deserve this award far more than I do, and I'm just very honored to stand with you tonight and celebrate your bravery.

I can't express how much I admire Planned Parenthood and the life-saving work that they do. Providing affordable healthcare, cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing, and abortion care, amongst so many other things, gives women the autonomy to care for themselves and shape their futures. It's a privilege to be here tonight to support an organization that, despite countless obstacles, continues to show up with compassion, hope and dignity for women. My greatest wish is that through organizations like Planned Parenthood and the action of everyday citizens, no woman will need to sacrifice her dreams, her health or humanity because of restrictive laws or lack of resources.

Before I go, I want to honor Cecile Richards. She led at a time of relentless attacks on care and constant efforts to silence and shame women into submission, but Cecile stood her ground, and in doing so, she stood up for millions of us. I never got the chance to meet her, but her legacy of resilience and decency continues to impact me. She reminds us that standing up for what's right doesn't mean we have to be fearless. We can be scared, we can be angry, we can feel hopeless. We just have to fight anyway. Thank you again, so much.

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Olivia Rodrigo Accepts Planned Parenthood Award & Urges 'We Just Have to Fight' Even in 'Hopeless' Political Climate

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Olivia Rodrigo accepted Planned Parenthood's Catalyst of Change award, presented by Lily Allen, and gave a speech at the 2025 Spring Into Action Gala.

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. https://t.co/wQcYw1x3fL

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. https://t.co/wQcYw1x3fL

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. pic.twitter.com/wQcYw1x3fL
— Buzzing Pop (@BuzzingPop) October 21, 2025

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. https://t.co/wQcYw1x3fL

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. https://t.co/wQcYw1x3fL

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Olivia Rodrigo will donate all ticket proceeds from her Amex intimate show to her Fund 4 Good, which supports women’s and girls’ rights, reproductive freedom, and education. https://t.co/wQcYw1x3fL

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Olivia's headlining set at Glastonbury gained widespread praise and recognition. As this article states, this performance "will go down as the stuff of Glasto legend", putting her in the same category as musical legends who have previously headlined the iconic festival. This milestone of a performance arguably raised her artistic credibility beyond her young fan base, shifting her image for the general public from a teen idol to a highly respected live performer capable of headlining one of the world's most prestigious music festivals.

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You'll often find that the best Glastonbury headliners succeed at Worthy Farm because they realise it's a gig like no other. Pull out the stops, do something special and you'll easily enough cement your place in Glasto folklore.

Step forward Olivia Rodrigo, then, who marks her own occasion on the Pyramid by bringing out a bonafide Glastonbury legend in the form of The Cure's Robert Smith to rip through a joyous 'Friday I'm In Love', before the king of the goths sticks around for 'Just Like Heaven' too. It's a brilliant moment to watch and by getting a venerable legend like Smith in her corner she delivers the ultimate riposte to people who questioned whether the 22-year-old had what it takes for this biggest of gigs.

But if we're being honest, that ultimate riposte began from the moment Rodrigo arrived on stage and ripped through a thunderous run of 'bad idea right'. It was loud, in your face and unforgettable. Here was Rodrigo delivering the best headline set of the weekend and, by some distance, pulling in the biggest crowd too.

It's easy to forget how many hits she has at such a young age too, but it speaks volumes that 'drivers license' - the song that shot Rodrigo to global fame in 2021 - is played just four songs in and yet the show loses no momentum at all. Inbetween songs we learn that Rodrigo is an unabashed anglophile, which results in the charming moment when M&S confectionary like Colin the Caterpillar and necking pints at midday are listed as some of her favourite things about Britain. The roar she receives back firmly suggests that a large deal of the crowd have been following that latter boozy point all day.

She first played here in 2022 and stole that show then with the unforgettable moment when she named each judge responsible for overturning Roe v Wade that very weekend, before performing Lily Allen's 'Fuck You' with the singer. It immediately felt like she was destined for the Pyramid the next time around. Now, she has grabbed that step up with a set that electrified her die-hard younger fans and, you sense, won over a few older ones too. A superstar at the peak of her powers.

Keep updated with all our coverage from Worthy Farm here and on our social media.

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Olivia Rodrigo live at Glastonbury: The best headliner of the whole weekend

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A set that will instantly go down as the stuff of Glasto legend.

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The GUTS World Tour Film follows Olivia throughout her live show in Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The film showcases Olivia as a performer offering an immersive concert experience from home, made for fans who didn't get the experience of attending her tour in person.

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Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour (TV Special 2024) ⭐ 7.7 | Documentary, Music

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The second single from GUTS, 'bad idea right?', again reiterates Olivia's growth in maturity. It's rock sound and playful lyrics shifts her image from a sad and emotional teen to being more confident and self assured while still remaining relatable.

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Olivia Rodrigo - bad idea right? (Official Video)

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Olivia brought out Robert Smith, to perform with her at her headlining slot at Glastonbury. This collaboration with such a renowned rock musician solidifies her artistic credibility, particularly surrounding her place in the genre.

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Olivia Rodrigo, Robert Smith - Friday I’m in Love (Live From Glastonbury)

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Olivia as the cover of Vogue is a significant marker of her cultural influence. It also displays her public image as multi dimensional - singer, songwriter, performer, actress and now style icon.

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Olivia Rodrigo is vibrating with excitement. We're cozy in A-1 Record Shop in the East Village, listening to funk over the speakers and torrential rain on the pavement outside. She's about to get the keys to a new apartment in Greenwich Village, and she's entering her New York era: Her best friend Madison goes to Columbia, she wants to know where the good karaoke spots are, and she feels like the energy of any well-spent 20s-a little chaos, a lot of fun-is all around her here. "I've got to live my Sex and the City fantasy," she says. (For the record, she identifies as a Carrie and Charlotte mix.)

Rodrigo, who came beaming into the record store like the absent sun, has her long dark hair in neat braids down her back. She's wearing winged eyeliner and little other makeup, a lavender sweater, a long purple-and-white-checked skirt, and black loafers. Her face is as open as a fresh notebook; she wields her hot-girl powers gently. She clarifies that she's not giving up California: For one thing, there's no place better to listen to music than in your car. But, though she always used to roll her eyes when people would say they were more inspired in New York-"I would be like, ' Whatever!' "-she's spent a lot of the last year writing here, and she's starting to feel like it might be true. She's also been learning to be alone, for the first time in her life, and she's found that it's particularly wonderful, in the city, to be alone among a lot of people. Plus, I say, when New Yorkers see someone famous-

"They don't give a shit," she says, smiling.

When the world-outside the narrowly age-gated if otherwise enormous viewership for Disney original programming-was introduced to Olivia Rodrigo, it was January 2021 and she was 17, and every single person with internet access and a pandemic-​damaged psyche seemed to be listening to "Drivers License," a song she wrote about her first heartbreak. She was 16 when COVID hit, and she was living at home with her parents, finishing her senior-year schoolwork, sitting in her bedroom watching her life change through a tiny screen. "Everything flipped on its head," she says, with the release of that song, which was streamed 80 million times in a week.

Rodrigo became a global celebrity, with the minutiae of her private life suddenly a matter of rabid public interest; when she released her debut album, Sour, that May, she became the first artist in history to get her first three singles in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100. The album's been streamed more than 40 billion times globally, as if every human on this planet had listened to that indelible bridge- red lights, stop signs -five times. "You could tell she really believed in the lyrics," Carole King told me. (Rodrigo counts King among her major influences.) "And that there was substance behind them, craft and substance." But the rocket ride she took to fame's stratosphere is not the shift that's on Rodrigo's mind right now. "Somehow, all of that totally pales in comparison to turning 20," she says. "The rest of it feels minuscule compared to that."

Rodrigo was born in Riverside County, in Southern California, the year that Taylor Swift moved to Nashville to become a country star. Her mom was a teacher, her dad a therapist, and their musical taste leaned toward grunge, rock, and alternative: No Doubt, the White Stripes, '80s metal, riot grrrl. Rodrigo, a bubbly and precocious go-getter, embraced the vibes, going to the county fair to see Weezer for her first concert; on YouTube, you can watch her at eight years old, singing "Home Sweet Home" by Mötley Crüe in a local talent competition. Her paternal family is Filipino, as my family is, and in A-1 Records, we joke about the more-or-less accurate ethnic stereotype about Filipinos: We all know how to sing. Rodrigo pulls out an album by the Cure. "I'm going to see them in two weeks with my dad," she tells me. "He's introducing me to all the bands he went to see when he was my age." A few weeks ago, they went to see Depeche Mode, too.

Rodrigo's parents, laid-back and (they'd be the first to tell you this, she says) not at all creative, found themselves with a guided missile toward Hollywood on their hands. "I would get a microphone from the Dollar Tree and make up songs about being lost in the grocery store," Rodrigo says. "I was always singing. I was always super motivated to do things." For a while, she insisted she was going to become an Olympic gymnast-she had a Gabby Douglas poster on her wall. But Los Angeles beckoned. She begged her parents to bring her to auditions in the city for commercials, hand-modeling gigs, anything-a five-hour drive that they would often make after school. "Olivia had a strong sense of perseverance as a kid," says her mother, Jennifer, "especially when it came to acting. For about every 50 auditions she went on, she might book one small role." The family eventually imposed a deadline: At Christmas, the year Rodrigo was 12, the auditions would stop. "I was so stubborn," she says. "I have no idea why I was like, 'This is what I want to do.'  "

Then, shortly before Christmas, Rodrigo booked a starring role in an American Girl doll movie, playing a telegenic tween who wins MasterChef Junior. Soon after, she entered the Disney machine. She met Madison Hu, the best friend who now attends Columbia, at a chemistry read for the TV show Bizaardvark; they were strangers, but the producers asked, after they did their scene, how long the two of them had been friends. Rodrigo and Hu were cast as the leads, playing a duo of young musical vloggers making it big. "I don't even remember a time when we were getting to know each other," Hu told me. "It was immediately like, 'Olivia's my best friend.' " Bizaardvark ran for three seasons. When it ended, her parents underscored that she didn't have to continue on the Hollywood path. "We explained that you only get one chance in life to go to high school and have those experiences," says Jennifer. "It wasn't even a consideration for Olivia."

In 2019, Rodrigo got the lead on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a project as meta and recursive as Rodrigo's own career. On it, she played Nini, a girl who wrote love songs and posted them on Instagram. Technically, Rodrigo's first single was the 2019 Disney release "All I Want," a ballad looking back on flawed relationships, which she wrote herself and performed in character as Nini. "I miss the days when I was young and naive," she sings, wistfully.

The song blew up on TikTok, and labels came calling. Rodrigo proceeded carefully. The road from Disney girl to pop artist is one of the most treacherous in the industry, studded with traps and pitfalls involving control, impossible expectations, the brute-force monetization of girlishness and sexuality. There have been mini-epochs, each micro-​generation of girls getting a little less flattened in the machine: phase one, Britney Spears; phase two, Hilary Duff; phase three, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus; and in phase four, Ariana Grande-the first to quickly shed the Disney mantle and establish an independent musical identity. When Rodrigo signed with Geffen she included control of her master recordings in her contract. She insisted on releasing an album first, rather than an EP, to display more of her range, and wrote every song on Sour, working with Dan Nigro, the emo lead singer turned producer whose other collaborators include Sky Ferreira, Caroline Polachek, and Conan Gray. And Rodrigo managed to do this all while still working for Disney: She finished filming her third and final season of HSM:TM:TS in 2022.

Sour established Rodrigo as a definitive Gen Z pop star. "There's this je ne sais quoi to Olivia," Nigro told me. "People either have it or they don't." He'd spotted her on Instagram in early 2020-she'd posted a clip of herself singing "Happier," a winsome song about watching an ex move on with another girl. Nigro got the chills. "The concept, the lyric, was so clever: I hope you're happy, but don't be happier." Sour was true to its title, a lollipop that planted an ache in your gut. Rodrigo inhabited each line with utter sincerity; she seemed dazzled, flummoxed, overwhelmed by the headiness of growing up-by the realization that each snapshot of the ephemeral present would become a memory. She crystallized waves of anger and longing and inadequacy: "Do you get déjà vu when she's with you?" she sang.

Now, for her sophomore album-​which, as of the day we meet up, she and Nigro are still finishing-​expectations are boundless. In order to hear four of the new songs, I'd set up a clandestine rendezvous with her publicist: At a library-​quiet coffee shop in Brooklyn, I'd been handed an iPhone and a set of headphones, and listened to how much Rodrigo's life had and hadn't changed. There were two wrenching, cinematic ballads, but they were crafted with a new self-​assurance. The other two tracks were playful and insouciant-​indications, Nigro said, of this album's turn away from melancholy. On one, which brought to mind Le Tigre, Charli XCX, and the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack, Rodrigo careened toward an ill-​advised and irresistible night with an ex. On the other, she sweetly wove a lyrical cat's cradle about the impossible expectations that rest on idealized young women-the pressure to be sexy, thoughtful, funny, kind, inspirational, easygoing, endlessly grateful-and then ripped the threads apart on the chorus, flipping from Taylor Swift to Kathleen Hanna in a blink. I heard each song just twice, but the hooks are still ricocheting around my head.

"I remember when I was 13, and they were asking me what I wanted my brand to be, and I was just like, 'I don't even know what I want to wear tomorrow' "

I'd later tell Nigro that I was awed at how Rodrigo had calibrated her evolution. She wasn't dwelling in the territory of bubblegum locker-door fairy tales, nor was she aggressively making statements that she was edgy and grown. She'd simply captured what it was like to be 20, an age when you're sometimes blazing with ridiculous lust, thrilled to be seen as beautiful, enraged by other people's expectations. "Olivia can't be anything other than herself," Nigro said. "There's never a sense in the studio of her trying to fit into a mold, or sound like anything that anyone might want her to."

Talking to Rodrigo at the record store, it seems to me that she's propelled herself into superstardom in part because of her ability to be exactly where she is: behind a piano, heartbroken; lying in bed, refusing to look at her Spotify numbers or follower count, knowing that her whole life is changing. Right now, she's just in the East Village on a rainy day, telling me about her newfound Tori Amos obsession. We pull out a Bruce Springsteen live recording of a concert in Toronto in 1984. "He's my biggest celebrity crush of all time," she says. On the album cover, Springsteen is wearing a sweatband and a T-shirt that says "Warning! This record contains noises of an explicit nature that may be offensive and should not be played in the presence of minors." The title, in black and white, says "PORN IN THE U.S.A.!" Rodrigo giggles. "I think I might have to get this for my new apartment." She tucks it under her arm. "Yeah, you're coming home with me.

I'm surprised, in the record store, when Rodrigo brings up a piece about abortion I wrote last year. The reproductive rights rollback, she says, feels "actually insane-I think it's sickening." We talk about how many girls in her generation, and in my daughter's, and in mine, will be "forced to give birth if they get pregnant," she says. "It is so scary. It's such a terrifying reality." We talk about volition, and choice, and how that makes all the difference in bodily experience. (At Rodrigo's 2022 Glastonbury performance, she brought out Lily Allen to sing Allen's song "Fuck You," which she dedicated to the five conservative Supreme Court justices who had just invalidated Roe v. Wade. "So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this," she shouted, onstage.) In 2021, Rodrigo spoke at a White House news briefing to encourage young people to get vaccinated for COVID; she plans to use her platform to get out the vote in 2024. As we pay for our records, unfurl our umbrellas, and walk a couple of blocks in the rain to Café Mogador, she asks me about what it's like being a working mother. "I'm so excited to experience motherhood one of these days. I think about it all the time."

At Mogador, a decades-old brunch staple on St. Marks, Rodrigo tells me that she recently watched Meet Me in the Bathroom, a documentary about music in Strokes-era New York City-she loves the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, of course-and that it was part of what made her so excited to move to the city. We order coffee, hers with oat milk, and she asks me how I met my husband. Funny enough, I say, I met him when I was 20 years old. "I want to meet my husband now!" she says. I'm grateful, I tell her, that my heart has been treated gently, and that I'm not currently dating 35-year-old adolescents. "Peter Pan boys," she says sagely. But I wonder if, never having experienced heartbreak, I've missed something essential on the spectrum of human experience.

She notes that heartbreak comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes. "It doesn't necessarily have to be 'My boyfriend dumped me and I'm heartbroken.' "

That is the classic form, though, I say.

"Well, there's still time," she says, dryly.

The thing Rodrigo says most often during our time together is that she's lucky: lucky to have parents who tell her they'd be just as proud of her if she were going to community college in Temecula, lucky to have friends who call her out on her bullshit, lucky to have a house in Los Angeles-she's been baking a lot of banana bread and spending time on interior-design TikTok. The thing she says second-most often is: "You don't realize how young you are when you're young." She kind of can't believe her own self, at age 12, "being on sets, surrounded by 40-year-old guys, talking about the traffic and the weather, learning to make small talk like an adult."

I wonder if she'll feel this distant amazement, in a few years, about herself at 18. Her first music festival-and the only one she's attended to date-was Glastonbury, when she played it. The first time she ever performed her own songs live, it was at the BRIT Awards; the second time, it was on Saturday Night Live. She tells me that she had never been more scared in her life than she was in the dressing room, that she was literally crying from nerves. And still, that night, she crushed it-ably managing a stage whose tricky acoustics flummox veteran acts all the time. "She's a professional in everything she does," says Carole King. "She's been a professional for a long time."

"The most painful moment of my life turned into my most successful"

But now, Rodrigo is learning, in a particularly high-octane way, that adulthood doesn't mean having life figured out. "I remember being in meetings when I was 13," she says, "and they were asking me what I wanted my brand to be, and I was just like, 'I don't even know what I want to wear tomorrow.' " Back then, she thought this was a problem. Now she understands that confusion is necessary, that the unknown is generative. She forced herself not to write at all for six months after Sour came out; she's aware that she needs to live a life in order to be able to write about it. She's been reading Meg Jay's cult-classic psychology book The Defining Decade, which is about how the tumultuous change in a person's 20s can guide them into a steady future. The new album is a time capsule, Rodrigo says, commemorating a moment that feels like it's "about figuring stuff out, about failures and successes and making mistakes."

Can she tell me more about these mistakes? She laughs. "You'll have to listen to the rest of the album," she says.

The server at Mogador comes with two plates of halloumi eggs-Rodrigo confesses that she's never had halloumi before, but just thought it sounded good-and a side of bacon. In Los Angeles, bacon has played a regular role in her self-care routine. "I wake up and make my little matcha and I make bacon for myself, and then I sit at the piano and try to write something, even if it's shit," she says. This solitary discipline is a point of pride for her. After the success of Sour, she had to deliberately stop herself from crowding her life with distractions. "I would hang out with my friends every single night and have a sleepover, or I'd cling to a boyfriend, anything to not process what was actually happening in my life," she says. When she returned to songwriting, the act felt different. "I'm not going on 17, going through my first heartbreak, crying, with words just pouring out of me," she says.

I ask her about something she'd said a few times in 2021, that young women in pop music had an expiration date placed on them at age 30. "I was under the impression," she says, "that the younger you are, the more successful you'll be in the music industry." She'd always known that the paradigm was unfair; now she rejects, altogether, the idea that value is externally defined. "I think I believed in these false ideas for a little while," she says. "The most painful moment of my life turned into my most successful." For a minute she imagined that the more pain she was in, the more people would like her, the more money she would make. Now, she thinks you write good albums when you're growing a lot, and that that's a process that goes on all your life. Anyway, she doesn't want to be a pop star forever, necessarily. What she cares about is that she can keep writing songs, whether for herself or other people.

One of the sticky points, for now, of Rodrigo writing autobiographically: The internet will instantly dissect the lyrics to find clues about her personal life. She's careful, as we talk, not to go into specifics about the relationships chronicled in her new songs-about an older guy, for example, whom she calls a "bloodsucker, fame fucker," in the lead single, "Vampire": "I used to think you were smart, but you made me look so naive," she sings, "the way you sold me for parts, you sunk your teeth into me."

I ask her if she's single, and she makes a so-so gesture with her hand and says, cheerfully, "I don't know!" Then she laughs, perhaps knowing this next part isn't exactly true: "I don't kiss and tell.

"It's an interesting thing to think about," she says, diplomatically, about the public interest in her relationships, which she weathered in extremity while she was still in high school. "I understand it. I could sit here and be like, 'I don't get why people do that,' but I do it so often." (Earlier, we'd talked about how her first internet passion was Harry Styles fan fiction.) But though she wrote each song to understand her emotions more clearly, once they're out in the world, they don't belong to her anymore, she says-they're not about her story. They're vessels for other people to process their own lives. King had mentioned this quality of Rodrigo's: "She begins by speaking for herself, but she speaks, in the end, for so many young women." (King added, then, unprompted, "And I love her. I've only met her for one afternoon, but I love her.")

A couple weeks later, my rainy day with Rodrigo erased by spring sunshine, I get back on the phone with Hu, who is uptown. "At her core, Olivia really believes in consciously making the effort to be a good person," Hu tells me. "When I met her, that wasn't something that was on my mind, and she ingrained it in me." They are each other's longest nonfamilial relationship, Hu says. Everything is now in front of them-meandering walks through the city, Pilates classes they'll sweat through, late nights, hazy brunches; their 12-year-old selves standing somewhere in the distance, wishing each other luck.

At Mogador, as we finish our meal, Rodrigo tells me she's thinking about the version of her that did press for her first album. "That girl feels like a different person," Rodrigo says. "I look back at her and I think, 'Aw. She did well.' I think she'd be really happy with who she is."

In this story: hair, Jimmy Paul; makeup, Fara Homidi using Fara Homidi Beauty.
The August issue featuring Olivia Rodrigo is here. Subscribe to Vogue.

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A New Decade, A New Album, A New Life-Olivia Rodrigo's Next Chapter

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With a new album coming this fall, Olivia Rodrigo is poised to reignite her global superstardom. But that's not what's on Rodrigo's mind right now. "Somehow, all of that totally pales in comparison to turning 20," she says.

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The headline 'Olivia Rodrigo Is So Over Heartbreak' reiterates the shift in Olivia's image from SOUR to GUTS, emphasising how she stepped away from being defined by heartbreak, insecurity etc. The piece explores the evolution of Olivia's artistic identity into becoming versatile and confident while still remaining authentic and emotional.

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Olivia Rodrigo is living her best life on both coasts, and she’s so over heartbreak. With Guts, superstar has leveled up — as the whole world watched

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Since SOUR elements of rock have been present in Olivias music however GUTS reframed her position within the genre. This article explores Olivia's evolution into being a rock star. It comments on how she channels rock influence while remaining true to herself by still incorporating femininity and vulnerability into her music and persona.

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Jordan News | Latest News from Jordan, MENA

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LOS ANGELES - Olivia Rodrigo, the bearer of perhaps the most famous driver's license in Los Angeles, piloted her black Range Rover to Westwood on a scorching late July afternoon. اضافة اعلان

Six weeks remained before the release of her second album, "Guts," and she was racked with anxiety - about finding a spot for her SUV. ("Parking in LA is a hellscape," she later proclaimed.) The car was her dream purchase, her favorite place to listen to music, and yes, she feels guilty about the gas. She kept the stereo off as she circled her destination with increasing despair. A woman crossing a narrow street hustled out of Rodrigo's path as she let out a "Sorry!," unaware that the apologetic 20-year-old behind the wheel was the youngest artist to debut atop Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

When Rodrigo awoke on a January 2021 morning to news that her first single, the octave-climbing weeper "Drivers License," had rocketed to No. 1, she knew "nothing would ever be the same," she said. One day she was a Disney actress with powerhouse pipes, the next she was the promising new voice of her generation - all while she was still a high school senior living with her parents, and largely under COVID restrictions.

"Sour," the album Rodrigo released that May with writing credits on all 11 songs, went four times platinum; two of its tracks, the bona fide phenomenon "Drivers License" and the sarcastic kiss-off "Good 4 U," crossed that threshold six times over. She was feted by Alanis Morissette and Gwen Stefani, and duetted with Billy Joel and Avril Lavigne. Cardi B gushed about her on Twitter. Halsey sent a cake. At the 2022 Grammys, three of her seven nominations turned into wins, including best new artist.

Embarking on her maiden tour? Watching tabloids diagram her dating history? None of that was easy. But crafting the follow-up to a smash debut is music's most daunting crucible, and Rodrigo felt the pressure to make a diamond. Ultimately, she turned to advice she'd received from an idol, Jack White.

"He wrote me this letter the first time I met him that said, 'Your only job is to write music that you would want to hear on the radio,'" she recounted over her go-to dinner of salad and fries. She paused. "I mean, writing songs that you would like to hear on the radio is in fact very hard."

Songs are only a fraction of the equation. Young women in pop face a dizzying array of pressures: to look a certain way, to compete against each other, to be role models, to project acceptable emotions. So it's notable that Rodrigo has largely opted out. On "Guts," due Sept. 8 on Geffen, she is simply a rock star.

The album's opener, "All-American Bitch," begins with Rodrigo's angelic soprano over fingerpicked acoustic guitar before snapping into fuzzy power chords and the first of many f-bombs. (She has a true gift for a well-placed expletive.) On "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl," she chants a litany of embarrassing party fouls over a springy bass line and lets out cathartic screams.

There are still piano ballads - poignant ones, exploring the drawbacks of her unusual path, attraction to a gaslighting boyfriend, the challenge of granting forgiveness. The LP's mix of energy reflects Rodrigo's tastes. She loves women who rage, and Rage Against the Machine; songwriters unafraid to bare their intimate fears, and artists who make their politics crystal clear.

Her urge to move in a grungier direction took hold as "Sour" was wrapping up. "Brutal," the last song she wrote for the album with Daniel Nigro, the producer who has become her creative partner, is a punky eye-roll ("I'm not cool and I'm not smart/And I can't even parallel park") she turned into her Sour Tour's opening number.

"It was super heavy when we were rehearsing it," she said of her live band, whose members are all female or nonbinary. "I remember tears welling up in my eyes and being like, this is so powerful. This is what I wanted to see when I was a girl scrolling YouTube when I was 14."

When Rodrigo was that age, she was already a working actress, starring in the first of two Disney TV shows that brought her to national attention. She long had musical ambitions, but the ordinary path for the company's phenoms - Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera or Justin Timberlake's gleaming synth-pop and pop-R&B - wasn't for her.

Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato have indulged their taste for rock, but Rodrigo's commitment to it is deeply ingrained. Her musical foundation was built on the '90s bands her parents loved. While most of today's pop is made by committee, she works almost exclusively with Nigro, a onetime frontman of the emo band As Tall as Lions. A few tracks on the new album were recorded live, with a full band.

Writing "All-American Bitch," with its fierce dynamics and wry attitude, was an uncorking of emotions that don't often find voice in pop.

"For me, that's what music is, it's expressing those feelings that are really hard to externalize, or that you feel aren't societally acceptable to externalize," Rodrigo said. "Especially as a girl."

Rodrigo, who is of Filipino descent, grew up an only child in Temecula, a suburb between Los Angeles and San Diego, begging her mother and father - a teacher and a therapist with no artistic inclinations - to take her to auditions. No stage was too small.

"I think I was 9 years old, and I performed at the opening of a grocery store in my town," Rodrigo remembered in a video call a week after her parking misadventure from her home office in LA, chatting in a baggy white Morrissey T-shirt from her dad's collection.

A break arrived in 2016 with the Disney Channel show "Bizaardvark," in which Rodrigo played a video blogger alongside Madison Hu, who became one of her closest friends. Music, her first love, was baked into its three seasons - she learned guitar for the role - and when she took one of the leads in "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" in 2019, her fluid vocal performances stood out.

The Disney+ show provided Rodrigo with both an opportunity to release an original song, the sweepy, mid-tempo "All I Want," and - if you follow the exhaustive tabloid analysis of her personal life - the relationship that led to the heartbreak fueling "Drivers License."

On what she called "a very momentous, serendipitous day, the day before the world shut down" in March 2020, her music career officially got on track. In the morning, Rodrigo met with the major label she'd later sign to after she was assured it was investing in her as a writer, not as a potential star. (She also negotiated to keep her masters.) In the afternoon, she had her first meeting with Nigro.

The writer-producer had worked with Sky Ferreira and Caroline Polachek, artists who bridge pop and rock with clear artistic visions of their own. He'd seen a raw demo Rodrigo posted on Instagram of the eventual "Sour" track "Happier" ("I hope you're happy," she coos lightly to an ex, "but don't be happier") and was floored. It was the first song the duo tackled when they were finally able to work in person after a few months of COVID separation. (Rodrigo's mother dropped her off for the session.)

When she brought in the beginnings of "Drivers License" not long after, "I think she started to feel really confident and like she was finding her voice for the first album," Nigro said in a phone interview. By the time they recorded "Brutal," with its barrage of crunchy guitars, he could see where she was headed next.

When rodrigo isn't creating music, she's inhaling it. She heaped praise on Snail Mail ("'Valentine' is one of my favorites"), Joni Mitchell ("I'll literally get emotional"), Kathleen Hanna ("I love Bikini Kill"), Gwen Stefani ("'Return of Saturn' was one of the albums that made me want to make music"), Depeche Mode ("I'm hooked") and Billy Joel ("He is everything"). She name checked Beyoncé and Sleater-Kinney, Simon & Garfunkel and Sweet. "Oh, my God, I listened to 'Ballroom Blitz' 10 times today," she exclaimed. "I have no idea why."

One of her superpowers is bridging generations. "She's a revelation," Hanna, of the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, said in a phone interview. "To be my age and cry at something that someone so young wrote - like listening to 'Drivers License' for the first time and sobbing in my car."

Although Rodrigo works across genres, "Guts" leans into rock, which largely receded from the center of music a decade ago. As streaming pushed hip-hop, pop and global sounds to new heights, the most innovative and exciting rock has been bubbling beneath the surface, driven largely by young women. When Rodrigo bounded onstage on tour in a pleated plaid skirt and arm warmers, she drew on a lineage from riot grrrl to early 2000s pop-punk to acts such as Soccer Mommy and boygenius who have been expanding rock's emotional palette. Those contemporaries have built cult audiences on the back of growing indie success, but Rodrigo's stakes are higher: She's Trojan-horsing in rock's musical brashness and emotional spikiness under the cover of pop stardom.

Rodrigo said she's "always loved rock music, and always wanted to find a way that I could make it feel like me, and make it feel feminine and still telling a story and having something to say that's vulnerable and intimate." She beamed, her eyes bright under light winged makeup, talking about how artists she admires are "using rock music, but they're not trying to recreate a version of rock music that guys make."

Her openness about her influences is striking considering such frankness has already come with risks: Taylor Swift and Paramore may have been inspirations on "Sour," but after the album's runaway success, those inspirations suddenly gained writing credits on two songs. Asked if she had caught Swift's Eras Tour, Rodrigo was brief: "I haven't yet," she said, quickly adding that she'd been busy. "I'm going to Europe this week."

In late July, she did get to a Tori Amos show with Annie Clark (who records as St. Vincent), a hero who has become a mentor. "I've never met anyone so young and so effortlessly self-possessed," Clark said in a phone interview. Rodrigo "knows who she is and what she wants - and doesn't seem to be in any way afraid of voicing that. And just a really lovely girl too," she added. "I've never heard her say a bad word about anyone."

Rodrigo's ex-beaus might disagree. Although she doesn't name them, they are the subject of both passionate takedowns and lighthearted ribbing on "Guts." Its first single, "Vampire," is a suite that builds from ballad to bombast aimed at a man who abused her trust and fame; on the hilarious rap-rock banger (yes, really) "Get Him Back!," she playfully spins the title phrase, seeking both revenge and reconciliation.

"I had such a desire to live and experience things and make mistakes and grow after 'Sour' came out, I kind of felt this pressure to be this girl that I thought everyone expected me to be," she said. "And I think because of that pressure, maybe I did things that maybe I shouldn't have - dated people that I shouldn't have." She took a beat to clarify: "I'm very tame." But a lot of the album, she said, is "about reckoning with those feelings and coming out of that disillusionment and realizing the core of who I am and what I want to be doing and who I want to be spending my time with."

Over a few years of sea change, Rodrigo has sought anchors. She took a poetry class at the University of Southern California and insisted that the other students treated her "really normal." She secured an apartment in New York where her pal Hu attends college, and immediately endured a local rite of passage: a case of bedbugs.

Although she says her public profile is manageable - "I'm not like, Kim Kardashian or anything" - Rodrigo's life remains unconventional. Some of the album's most powerful moments are about her internal battles over early success.

She said she was at first hesitant to write about someone exploiting her celebrity in "Vampire," because she feared the experience was self-indulgent. "I've always tried to write about the emotions rather than this weird environment that I'm in," she explained. But the point of songwriting "is to distill all of your emotions into their simplest, purest, most effective form."

She'd seen it at work on the Sour Tour, as girls shouted the lyrics to "Traitor" back to her.

"It's kind of sad, but deep down, it's a really angry song," she said. She described looking out at the audience each night and seeing girls with "tears streaming down their faces, screaming." They were "so angry."

"That girl felt how I felt," she added. "It's the coolest thing ever."

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Olivia Rodrigo, pop's brightest new hope, just may be a rock star - Jordan News | Latest News from Jordan, MENA

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Olivia Rodrigo, the bearer of perhaps the most famous driver's license in Los Angeles, piloted her black Range Rover to Westwood on a scorching late July afternoon.

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This article, written by a self-described "48 year old music snob", expresses admiration for Olivia after seeing her live in concert. The author expresses how watching her perform shifted his perception of her to seeing her as a serious/ credible artist.

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I’m a 48-year-old music snob and I loved Olivia Rodrigo

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Olivia at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Olivia at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Olivia was invited to perform Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. This aligned her with established female singer-songwriter rock musicians, emphasising her respect to rock's legacy and her credibility as an artist beyond just pop.

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Olivia Rodrigo - "You’re So Vain" (Carly Simon) | 2022 Induction

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In 2021 Olivia was awarded as TIME's Entertainer of the Year, signifying her cultural impact. This award adds to her star image being both commercially successful and critically respected.

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Olivia Rodrigo Is TIME’s 2021 Entertainer of the Year

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The 18-year-old singer-songwriter’s uninhibited, confessional album captured the tone of a turbulent year

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This article discusses Olivia's role in representing the emotions and experiences of young women through her music. For example it includes this quote from Avril Lavigne “I think it’s important for people like Olivia to give an honest voice to so many young women who are still discovering themselves”.

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For the 2021 Power of Young Hollywood Issue, Variety profiled three young stars making an impact in the entertainment industry. For more, click here.

Criticism doesn't scare Olivia Rodrigo.

If anything, the 18-year-old - whose platinum-certified debut, " Sour," captured the biggest U.S. opening week sales for an album in 2021 so far - fully embraces it.

"I love criticism, honestly," Rodrigo tells Variety in a thoughtful tone, as if she's confiding a secret. "I think I can grow so much from people being like, 'Oh, I wish it was more like this,' and I'm like, 'Oh cool, this is my first album; I'm learning.'"

Heather Hazzan for Variety

While "Sour" has received rave reviews - so much so that it's already secured a place alongside Taylor Swift's "Red," Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" and No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" in the pantheon of mega-successful breakup albums - it's also invited some drama. Take a recent Instagram dust-up involving '90s rocker Courtney Love.

On the day of Rodrigo's Variety cover shoot, as the photo team and a gaggle of assistants readied the second setup, the room buzzed with the news that the former Hole frontwoman had reposted the art for Rodrigo's upcoming virtual concert, "Sour Prom." The photo featured Rodrigo wearing a crown and holding a bouquet of flowers with mascara running down her face, and Love captioned it "Spot the difference! #twinning!" It didn't take long for Instagram users to draw comparisons to the cover of Hole's 1994 album "Live Through This."

At first it seemed that Love was giving Rodrigo her seal of approval. Rodrigo even commented: "love u and live through this sooooo much." But things soon turned, er, sour in the comments section, where Love clapped back requesting flowers, and in another comment called it "rude" that Rodrigo had not asked her permission.

Some users agreed with Love that the similarities were too close for comfort. Others pointed out that the "Live Through This" artwork was itself reminiscent of the 1976 horror film "Carrie." (Representatives for Love declined Variety 's request for further comment.)

When asked about Love's remarks, Rodrigo doesn't seem fazed. "I mean, to be honest I'm flattered that Courtney Love knows who I am," she says. "She's from a totally different generation, so I thought that was cool, but I think we're both obviously really inspired by the film 'Carrie.' I don't know - I didn't really give it too much thought."

In the short time since releasing her breakout single "Drivers License," Rodrigo has become a voice of her generation, as a recent trip to the White House to endorse COVID-19 vaccines affirmed. And despite the comparisons or the social media drama, she's determined to keep doing things her way: chronicling heartbreak and growing pains in the raw fashion that could be delivered only by a teenager experiencing it all for the first time.

A quiet power practically radiates off Rodrigo's petite frame, which on this summer day is adorned with a multicolored neon Marc Jacobs shirt (designed by friend Devon Lee Carlson), black pants featuring full-length zippers down the front and formidable heels that would make a Bratz doll jealous. Though Rodrigo maintains a professional poise at all times, her free-spiritedness shines through in a handful of moments: discussing her undying admiration for Gwen Stefani, pausing her photo-shoot posing to sing along to Lorde's "Solar Power" and embracing the choice of wearing her long, brown locks in two braided buns instead of down.

Rodrigo's face also lights up when she talks about her love for songwriting, a pursuit that she still can't quite fathom has become her career. But for her, the proof is in the pudding - just take a look at the smash hit that "Drivers License" has become.

The song, in which she belts her heart out about driving past an ex's house, was released in January and made the actor - who stars as Nini on " High School Musical: The Musical: The Series " (the Disney Plus reboot of the famed franchise) - an instant pop star. Through Rodrigo's then newly minted deal with Geffen Records, the four-minute track didn't just take off - it became the most widely heard song on earth.

Heather Hazzan for Variety

Out of the gate, "Drivers License" reached No. 1 on the top three streaming charts - Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music - and broke the Spotify record for the highest streaming numbers for a debut single by a female artist. It also debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making Rodrigo, at just 17 (she turned 18 in February), the youngest solo artist to achieve that. It stayed at No. 1 for eight consecutive weeks.

But to truly get a sense of the enormous impact of "Drivers License," look no further than the Feb. 20 "Saturday Night Live" skit in which host Regé-Jean Page and six male cast members earnestly recite the song's most crushing verses - "Can't drive past the places we used to go to / 'Cause I still fucking love you, babe." (Life and art came full circle when Rodrigo sang it on the show on May 15 - her second live performance ever.)

Rodrigo is no stranger to show business. But the success of "Drivers License" was something else. "Oh, my gosh, that was the craziest time of my life," she says, noting that she was in Utah filming "HSMTMTS" when the song came out. "I was sitting in a grocery-store parking lot, and I called my A&R guy. It had just gone No. 1 on Apple Music, which is hard for a pop act to do. We were looking at each other on FaceTime, speechless, and just stared at each other for a minute. 'What do we do?' 'I don't know.' That was the moment that I knew that it was going to be something bigger than I expected."

Rodrigo's manager, Kristen Smith of Camp Far West, says the song offered a "collective cry" after a heartbreaking year of pandemic. "But I don't think anyone could have predicted what happened, mainly because some of it has never been done."

Adds Sam Riback, executive vice president and co-head of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M: "Did we know it was going to be this global smash that would break all these records? No. But we did know it was an incredible song and the perfect first step for what we were trying to paint for this album campaign."

The rapturous response to "Drivers License" threw Rodrigo into a bit of a tailspin. Speculation as to who the heartbreak anthem was about - as well as the identity of "that blond girl" mentioned in the lyrics - ran rampant as fans and tabloids alike settled on Joshua Bassett, Rodrigo's Troy Bolton-esque co-star on "HSMTMTS," and Sabrina Carpenter, another Disney starlet with whom Bassett had been seen prior to the song's release. (Representatives for Bassett and Carpenter did not respond to Variety 's requests for comment.)

Though neither she nor Bassett publicly confirmed a relationship, Rodrigo admits: "I put it out not knowing that it would get that reaction, so it was really strange [when] it did. I just remember [everyone being] so weird and speculative about stuff they had no idea about." Besides, she adds, "I don't really subscribe to hating other women because of boys. I think that's so stupid, and I really resent that narrative that was being tossed around."

* * *

Long before "Sour," "Drivers License" and even "HSM," Rodrigo had a flair for dramatic songwriting. "I literally wrote breakup songs before I'd ever held a boy's hand or even remotely dated someone," she says. "When I was 4 years old, my parents made videos of me just making up random stuff. I think it wasn't until I was like 9 or 10 years old that I learned how to play piano and how to do chords, and actually started writing them down, recording them, listening to them back and trying to get better."

A self-professed "theater kid" from Temecula, Calif., Rodrigo grew up performing in school productions and singing competitions like the local Boys & Girls Club Idol, where she delivered attitude-heavy covers of Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home" and Jessie J's "Mamma Knows Best."

At home, Rodrigo's parents blasted alt-rock bands of the '90s and early 2000s like No Doubt (during the photo shoot, Rodrigo rocked out to the Stefani-fronted group's 2000 album "Return of Saturn"), Pearl Jam, the White Stripes and Green Day. Her first concert was Weezer.

Rodrigo grew enamored with songwriting through country music, and it quickly became a much-needed emotional outlet. She proudly calls herself a "fangirl for life" and has cited Taylor Swift as a songwriting idol - nods to Swift's lyrical style and knack for big bridges can be heard all over "Sour." The artist also was one of Rodrigo's early champions on social media.

"It's so nice to be welcomed into the music industry and so great to be supportive of other women," Rodrigo says. "She wrote me a letter a while ago, and she wrote something about how you make your own luck in the world, and how you treat other people always comes back to you."

Most of the tracks on "Sour" came from Rodrigo's deep arsenal of songs, many of which were written during the COVID-19 quarantine that began in March 2020. During that period, Rodrigo says she wrote a song every day for four months, ultimately sharing writing credits on all but three of the album's tracks with her key collaborator, songwriter-producer Dan Nigro.

"She's so effortless when it comes to lyric writing it's pretty incredible to witness," says Nigro. "Sometimes she'll run a line by me, and I'll help her tweak it to make it stronger. But most of the time she's just running with it."

Released on April 1, "Deja Vu" added more of an alt-rock sensibility to Rodrigo's lyric-driven songwriting with fuzzy guitars and saturated drums, courtesy of Nigro. Recounting the sneaking suspicion that an ex is now repeating history with someone else, "Deja Vu" references Billy Joel, "Glee" and strawberry ice cream.

"I think specificity is one of the most important things you can do as a songwriter," Rodrigo says. "I love songs where you can listen to them and sort of feel like you're in another world... and the way you do that is through imagery and details."

Indeed, though the sonic diversity of "Sour" is impressive, what really stands out is Rodrigo's brutally honest lyrics, especially when recounting the all-too-familiar pain of a relationship gone wrong. Even on upbeat cuts like "Good 4 U," the words cut like a knife: "Maybe I'm too emotional / But your apathy's like a wound in salt," she snarls in the song's bridge.

"I definitely talked about my deepest, darkest secrets and insecurities on 'Sour' - which is sort of strange to be like, 'Here, you guys can have this. Anyone who wants to listen to it can listen to it,'" Rodrigo says. "But it's really empowering when it comes out, and it's been really awesome for me to see people resonate with that vulnerability and relate to it."

Rodrigo credits Nigro's background as the former lead singer and guitarist of indie rock band As Tall as Lions with helping her find the pop-punk sound for "Good 4 U." She says she came up with the track's hook - "Good for you / You look happy and healthy / Not me / If you ever cared to ask" - in the shower. "I didn't want the entire record to be sad piano songs," Rodrigo says. "But then again, I didn't want to write a poppy, happy, 'I'm in love' song, because that was so far from how I was truly feeling at the time. So writing 'Good 4 U' was really satisfying because the song is upbeat and high energy and people can dance to it, but I didn't have to sacrifice being honest and authentic in order to write it."

Though "Sour" is heavy with heartbreak ballads, its edgier tracks bolster Rodrigo's genre-shifting abilities - most of all, opener "Brutal," which smacks you in the face with angst and ferocity. Other album highlights include "Traitor," Rodrigo's belted manifesto on how emotional affairs can hurt just as much as physical ones, which she initially wrote off as not being relatable enough. Little did she know, the result would be the opposite.

"I wrote it on my bed while I was crying," Rodrigo says. "I never really thought that it was going to be a song that resonated with so many people. I thought that it was a very specific situation that I was going through, and it's so funny that that's the non-single song that's the most successful. So many people have been like, 'How did you know? This is exactly what happened to me!'"

But not every song on "Sour" has to do with heartbreak. Toward the end of the album, the jazzy "Jealousy, Jealousy" and closer "Hope Ur Ok" deal with themes of insecurity and self-acceptance. In particular, "Jealousy, Jealousy" riffs on growing up in the social media age and confusing Instagram with reality - something that Rodrigo says she has struggled with herself.

"I definitely saw 'Sour' as a kind of slice of teenage life," Rodrigo says. "I think a big part of growing up is going through your first love and first heartbreak, and that was definitely reflected in the album, but I think songs like 'Brutal' and 'Jealousy, Jealousy' reflect the other parts of being a teenager and feeling insecure and not sure how you fit into the world."

In fact, pop-punk pioneer Avril Lavigne, who was struck by the "depth and mood" of "Drivers License," counts herself among Rodrigo's many fans. According to Lavigne, Rodrigo's vulnerability is her superpower.

"I think it's important for people like Olivia to give an honest voice to so many young women who are still discovering themselves," Lavigne says. "Her songs are her truth, and you can really feel that. You can tell it's real by the way all of her fans grab onto every single word she says."

* * *

With Rodrigo's freewheeling use of the f-word in her lyrics, it's easy to forget that she still stars on a Disney show. "People ask me all the time, 'Oh, did you just swear so that people would know that you're not a Disney kid anymore?'" she says. "It truly isn't a calculated decision in my head. It's not like, 'Oh, I'm gonna be an edgy kid now.' I just tend to have a very dirty mouth, and I think that obviously reflects itself in my songwriting."

Still, Rodrigo's path has strayed from that of other Disney alums who branched out into music - Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, to name a few - in that she didn't sign with Disney Music Group's relatively straitlaced Hollywood Records. Rodrigo's break with tradition is an important differentiator when it comes to the trajectory of Disney stars, who have often found themselves pigeonholed into a certain genre or kid-friendly category. Rodrigo says she has learned a great deal from those who came before her.

"I met Selena, and she was so kind," Rodrigo recalls. "She talked to me a lot about prioritizing mental health, which I think is really important in this industry. All of us were in the limelight very young. ... That can be taxing on your psyche and can bring about all these weird issues."

Kristen Smith, Rodrigo's manager, says: "Watching Olivia step into her power, that's most gratifying to me and most important. We're just starting to see what she's going to do."

Interscope Geffen A&M's Riback adds that Rodrigo has navigated her rise to fame "like a professional," taking both good and bad in stride. "I honestly just want her to keep living life, and keep documenting it in only the way she can," he says. "I've been doing A&R for 20 years, and she's potentially one of the most - if not the most - talented songwriter I've ever been around."

Says Rodrigo of her process: "I write about what I know and what I am feeling intensely. The album is about heartbreak, but I think all the songs are sort of a different aspect of heartbreak. There's plenty of emotions that come along with something like that: anger, spite, sadness, jealousy, longing."

Indeed, she acknowledges that her fans are helping her make it through the messy, insecure maze of young adulthood just as much as she is helping them.

"It makes me feel so much less alone when a fan says, 'That perfectly captured how I felt in my relationship,'" she says. "That makes me feel so seen."
Production Design: Daniel Luna; Styling: Chloe and Chenelle Delgadillo/Morgan Management; Makeup: Molly Greenwald/A-Frame Agency; Hair: Clayton Hawkins/A-Frame Agency; Manicure: Naoko Saita; Look 1 (crochet top and skirt): Sweater and skirt: Archive Moschino/Lidow Archive; Boots: Archive Marc Jacobs Runway/Lidow Archive; Earrings: Jiwiaia; Look 2 (cardigan): Cardigan and Pants: Blue Marine; Earrings: SafSafu; Look 3 (pink fur collar): Earrings: Vivienne Westwood/Lidow Archive; Necklace and bracelet: Justine Clenquet; Cuffs: Archive BCBG/Lidow Archive; Rings: Staff Oleuff

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From Disney to 'Drivers License': Inside Olivia Rodrigo's Musical Journey to Become the Voice of Her Generation

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For the 2021 Power of Young Hollywood Issue, Variety profiled three young stars making an impact in the entertainment industry. For more, click here. Criticism doesn't scare Olivia Rodrigo. If anything, the 18-year-old - whose platinum-certified debut, " Sour," captured the biggest U.S. opening week sales for an album in 2021 so far - fully embraces it.

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Olivia's success and recognition emphasised how her brand of authenticity was celebrated beyond just her fan base, with her also receiving industry acclaim.

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At the 2021 Variety Hitmakers event Olivia was awarded the songwriter of the year award by Avril Lavigne. This industry recognition and support, particularly by a music legend such as Lavigne, helps boost her artistic credibility.

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Avril Lavigne Presents Olivia Rodrigo With Variety Hitmakers’ Songwriter of the Year Award: ‘Her Songs Are Her Truth’

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Olivia Rodrigo was presented with Variety’s Songwriter of the Year award by Avril Lavigne at this year’s Hitmakers event on Saturday.

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Olivia Rodrigo Jumps Down into the Crowd to Give Her ‘GUTS’ Rings to Fans to Mark the End of an Era: Watch the Video!

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Olivia Rodrigo handed out her ‘GUTS’ rings to audience members after the final performance of her GUTS Tour. Watch the sweet moment!

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Olivia Rodrigo has opened up about receiving gifts from fans while on tour, revealing which has been her favourite so far.

The Grammy Award-winning artist recently spoke to following the end of her extensive 95-date 'GUTS' world tour - which was in support of her second album of the same name - and ahead of the release of her Netflix GUTS World Tour Concert Film.

Speaking about a moment at the end of the film in which she takes a lap around the floor collecting gifts from fans and attendees, the 'Vampire' singer shared that she keeps the gifts and "put them in my bus or in my dressing room".

"I have an entire luggage that's sitting over there in my living room, unpacked, full of just gifts and things that people have given me," she explained.

When asked about what has been her favourite gift a fan has given her so far, the 'Love Is Embarrassing' singer said: "I think my favourite one is (from) the Philippines, this sweet girl that I met crocheted me this beautiful bag and this bonnet that I find really chic, and so I've been wearing it."

She continued: "And if anyone asks me, I'm going to say, 'Yeah, a beautiful girl in the Philippines gave it to me. You can't buy it, it's one of a kind.'"

In other news, Rodrigo recently announced that she will be donating roughly $2million taken from ticket sales for her 'Guts' world tour to key organisations focusing on women's issues.

The singer has been a vocal reproductive rights activist, having announced the launch of The Fund 4 Good initiative earlier this year. The hefty sum of money will be spread across 10 organisations that champion girls' education, women's reproductive rights and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Elsewhere, Rodrigo is set to perform at various festivals next summer including the likes of Rock Werchter 2025, Roskilde Festival 2025, Mad Cool Festival 2025, NOS Alive 2025, BST Hyde Park and more.

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Olivia Rodrigo reveals her favourite gifts from fans

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Olivia Rodrigo has opened up about receiving gifts from fans while on tour and also revealed what gift has been her favourite so far.

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Olivia's appreciation of fellow musicians 

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Olivia's appreciation of fellow musicians 

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In this Rolling Stone Musicians on Musicians issue Olivia and Alanis Morissette discuss their fame, music, songwriting, etc. This situates Olivia and her music alongside that of Alanis', somewhat in a way of building on her legacy (particularly within rock). This collaboration so early into her career is important in signifying Olivia's credibility and situating her as a serious artist.

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Musicians on Musicians: Alanis Morissette & Olivia Rodrigo

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On becoming a superstar at an early age, the power of anger, and life in the public eye

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Olivia was invited on stage at Billy Joel's concert in Madison Square Garden to perform her song 'Deja Vu' which references him as well as 'Uptown Girl', also mentioned in the song. This highlights how Olivia's appreciation for other musicians in her music or otherwise earns her respect from icons, legitimising her stardom.

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Olivia Rodrigo Makes SURPRISE Appearance to Duet With Billy Joel

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Olivia released 'Can't Catch Me Now' as part of the The Hunger Games: Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes soundtrack, which emphasised her capability to write music beyond her own life, introducing her as a professional, cinematic songwriter.

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Olivia Rodrigo - Can’t Catch Me Now (from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)

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This article details how Olivia's appreciation and collaboration with other artists particularly rock musicians establishes her well within the genre - informing the making of her music and raising her credibility.

For example quotes within the article include:

- "Avril Lavigne thanking Rodrigo for reviving rock ‘n’ roll, to Jack White calling her a “very cool, very real lover of music” and “talented musician"

- "Her love of music is tangible and she’s never quiet about her inspirations, regularly covering many of the artists who inspire her onstage with that complexity and depth of her musical intelligence coming through on her latest tracks."

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How Olivia Rodrigo Built The Next Generation Of Rock Fans

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Fresh from Glastonbury and London’s Hyde Park, we head to Denmark’s Roskilde Festival to see Olivia Rodrigo unleash her rock side.

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This review of GUTS comments on how the album is transitional for Olivia's image both musically and personally. It comments that GUTS is "a display of real power, range and versatility" highlighting her growth and maturity, positioning her as more than just a teen pop phenomenon.

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On 'Guts', Olivia Rodrigo goes to war for every young woman who has been unable to articulate why it is so belittling not to be taken seriously. In the orbit of her urgent and riotous second album, the 20-year-old turns her own vulnerabilities into a rallying cry: here, she's a songwriter of control, diving headfirst into the collective female experience while also pursuing adventure, desire and relief. "I'm grateful all the time," Rodrigo repeats on opener 'All-American Bitch", " I'm pretty when I cry." She adopts a coo-like vocal as she continues to sing of how, in general, women are expected to moderate their emotions in the public eye. This record throws a sparkling firebomb at that grim, shared reality.

These 12 songs dissect embattled loves and revenge fantasies and highlight the near-impossibility of maintaining relationships when you're at battle with the watchful eye of social media. There's a feeling of being overburdened, too. Rodrigo shot to fame in 2021 with her record-breaking debut 'Sour', an album that spawned stratospheric hits ('Drivers License', 'Good 4 U') and put the former Disney star on a life-altering ascent, closing the year as the best-selling singles artist worldwide. This dominance not only coincided with the intensity of lockdown but gave her the reach to become one of the most influential pop writers of her generation; her sound - a mix of bratty, Avril-indebted pop and swooping balladry - can already be heard in a number of newer artists, including Lauren Spencer-Smith and Dylan.

This new chapter feels like an opportunity for Rodrigo to shake off that level of pressure or at least reshape it on her own terms. Lead single 'Vampire' bristles with fury towards a leeching older figure that took advantage of Rodrigo and her influence, exuding the same raw emotion that fuels Billie Eilish's 'Your Power'. "Six months of torture you sold as some forbidden paradise," she sings, her voice building with urgency before letting rip into a red-hot screech. 'The Grudge' and 'Making The Bed' are more subdued, wistful songs of regret and burn-out.

Moments of elegant production are balanced with some compellingly unflattering lyrics about failed romantic pursuits - Rodrigo is equally capable of asserting her agency with humour. Backed by a cheerleader chant, she is needy, sly and covetous on the frenzied 'Bad Idea Right', while 'Get Him Back!' is uninhibited in the way it takes down an ex over a choppy melody. The barbs grow sharper and funnier - he lied about being 6ft tall! - before Rodrigo, the child of a family therapist, breaks into a knowing admission: "But I am my father's daughter / So maybe I could fix him!"

'Guts' doesn't just feel transitional in a musical sense. It marks the end of Rodrigo's teenage years, a moment that has gravity given that she recently said in a statement that she felt like she grew "10 years" between the ages of 18 and 20. Here, she offers blunt self-analysis while reflecting on wider cultural ideas of performance and swallowing anger in order to comply with the wants and needs of others. It works as a display of real power, range and versatility - all of which Rodrigo possesses in abundance.

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Olivia Rodrigo - 'Guts' review: pop sensation secures her place as a generational talent

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The 20-year-old's self-assured second album documents her hopes, fears and trauma with thrilling emotional candour

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Olivias identity as a performer can be understood from this interview about the GUTS Tour film. She explains how her acting background enhances her stage presence with her innate desire to "play to the camera".

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Olivia Rodrigo on Her ‘Guts World Tour’ Netflix Film, Why She Foregrounds Women and Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Sound of ‘Girls Losing Their Minds’ Over Her Chappell Roan Duet

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Olivia Rodrigo discusses her Netflix concert film, the power of rock, and the loudest scream she’s ever heard, doing ‘Hot to Go’ with Chappell Roan.

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On stage at Glastonbury 2022 Olivia called out the 5 Supreme Court justices by name who had voted to overturn Roe V Wade, bringing out Lily Allen and singing F*** You. This political statement made headlines and positioned Olivia as both bold and a voice for women's rights and autonomy early in her career.

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Olivia Rodrigo Dedicates Lily Allen’s ‘F— You’ to the Supreme Court at Glastonbury

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Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen sang “F--- You” at Glastonbury, dedicating the song to the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.

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This article also quotes Olivia's speech, connecting the importance of her activism to her wider star image, particularly her relationship with her fanbase:

"When I play shows, I look out at crowds filled with young girls and the bond I feel with them is profound… I often wonder, ‘What happens to those girls when they leave those venues? What are their dreams? What kind of world are they returning to?'”

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Olivia Rodrigo & Alanis Morissette in Conversation | Musicians on Musicians

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Academia - Disney' Construction of Female Identities 

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Academia - Disney' Construction of Female Identities 

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This dissertation analyses how, through tightly controlled images, branding and merchandising, Disney constructs and markets young female stars to shape cultural expectations regarding girlhood. I.e., Disney favours presenting their female stars as wholesome aspirational figures as a way to leverage visibility for corporate gain. Olivia's lead roles on Disney, particularly as Nini on HSMTMTS, arguably existed within this framework, curating her image as a talented, relatable teen.

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Both articles reiterate Olivia's dedication to fan engagement and connection, emphasising her likeable persona.

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Academia - Becoming Brands: Celebrity, Activism, and Politics

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Academia - Becoming Brands: Celebrity, Activism, and Politics

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This article suggest that technological advancements and social media have allowed celebrities more control over their personal brand and image. Arguing that modern celebrities act as "human brands" utilising their public image to initiate social and/or political change. This supports the construction of Olivia's identity as an activist, reinforcing her image as authentic and politically engaged.